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      Bezborodko's Lions, Sphinxes and a Swan Pond

      ⏱ 50 min🚶 1.1 km🍽 1📍 4 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      A fence of 29 cast-iron lions with chains, a pier with sphinxes and a view of Smolny, a hidden pond with swans and lunch with a view of it.

      🏛 History and architecture🏘 Off the centre⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🏛 Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        Свердловская наб., 40
        An 18th-century Quarenghi estate with a famous fence of 29 cast-iron lions holding chains; restoration was completed in 2025.
        From Ploshchad Lenina metro by bus along Sverdlovskaya Embankment or 30 minutes on foot; take a good look at the lions
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        © John White spb · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha and the Lion Fence
        © Сергей Ястребков · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The first house here was built in the Gothic style in 1773–1777 by Vasily Bazhenov for Senator Teplov.
        • Teplov came here to take the mineral waters, then claimed they nearly poisoned him.
        • In 1782 Bezborodko bought the estate for the then huge sum of 22,500 rubles.
        • According to some accounts, the remodelling design was made not by Quarenghi but by Nikolai Lvov.
        • Because of the fence, the estate was nicknamed the "House with Lions".
        • In 1858 Alexandre Dumas stayed at the Kushelev Dacha, and Goncharov, Maykov and Pisemsky came to visit.
        • From 1896 it housed the Elizabeth Community of Red Cross nursing sisters.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌅 Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        Свердловская наб., напротив д. 40
        A granite pier with four sphinxes — a view of the Neva and Smolny.
        Sphinxes and a view of Smolny
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        © Екатерина Борисова · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Bezborodko Dacha Pier with Sphinxes
        © Petersburger · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The pier was built in the 1780s during the rebuilding of the Bezborodko estate.
        • The original sphinxes vanished without trace in the second half of the 19th century.
        • The present sphinxes are copies from the Stroganov Dacha, made when the pier was restored in the 1950s.
        • Behind the arch with a lion mascaron is a grotto where, in Bezborodko's day, an underground passage to the main house began.
        • Each sphinx is about a metre long; all four have women's faces in headscarves.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🌳 Polyustrovo Pond
        Свердловская наб., 44 (за БЦ «Лето»)
        The pond of the former Bezborodko estate, with swans — a quiet corner few people know about.
        A swan pond behind the business center
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Polyustrovo Pond
        © Messir · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The pond is the centre of Bezborodko Square, which received its name on 1 March 2013.
        • Locals call the pond "Bavarovka", after the New Bavaria brewery.
        • The square was named after years of appeals from Petersburg's Ukrainian community associations.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🍽 Restaurant "Na Polyane"
        Свердловская наб., 44, лит. Д (БЦ «Лето»)
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        Lunch with a view of the pond
        🍴 A panoramic restaurant overlooking the pond and swans. What to order: beef borscht, striploin steak, California rolls.

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